August 05, 2010

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News Corp. presented its fourth-quarter earnings yesterday, and Chief Financial Officer Dave DeVoe said the company's cable business — of which Fox is a big part — now makes up more than half its total revenue, TV Newser reports. Chief Operating Officer Chase Cary called Fox News "a true juggernaut" and said the network was about to enter into a new round of negotiations with carriers.

Rupert Murdoch pushed back against a Goldman Sachs prediction that Fox would up its carrier fee from the current rate of 58 cents to $1.25 but said he did expect fees to go up.

Murdoch was also asked if last year's boycott of Glenn Beck had any effect on the news network's earnings.

The News Corp. CEO laughed and responded with a quick "no."

"They're not boycotting watching it because it's getting incredible numbers," he said. "We have not lost any business at all; some [advertisers] may have moved to other programs," but "it has not affected the total revenues or the profits."

I dropped my GEICO insurance when I heard they pulled their advertising from Beck... when I told the person on the other end of the line I was cancelling my policy she asked "Is this because of Glenn Beck?"... So obviously I wasn't their first cancellation. Boycotts work both ways!

So according to Murdoch, a successful business model requires a boycott from all sponsors and advertisers. How about sending all his talk show hosts home and watching the numbers quadruple by themselves? Maybe is he sells Fox to Al Jazeera, Glenn Beck will become profitable again.